Challenge of Polio eradication in Nigeria

As an international community, we have few opportunities to do something that is unquestionably good for every country and every child, in perpetuity. Polio eradication is one of these opportunities. Therefore, I am putting the full operational power of the World Health Organisation into the job of finishing polio eradication. I am making polio eradication our organisation’s top priority on a most urgent, if not an emergency, basis.”

If ever there is time the above quote from Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General World Health Organisation is relevant in Nigeria’s context, it is now. We have to put our life on the line to ensure we finish the task of polio eradication in Nigeria. Included in this task is aggressive campaign. The word perpetuity should be stressed until the battle is won. Some may wonder why discussing polio again after much activity was invested in 2013 and we have just had our first and second rounds of National Immunisation Plus Days (NIPDs) in this year. I guess somebody may also be saying, “…but we have had just three cases of polio this year. Have we not tried enough for these children?

Let’s stop at this juncture to ask some salient questions. If the two children that were affected were your only children, what will you do? What if one of them is your only boy? What will you do if one of the affected children is your most adorable baby girl? I want to assume that you will not throw a big party and say, come and rejoice with me because of what polio virus has done to my family. Never! No one will do such an ignoble and obnoxious thing. You will wail and cry with great lamentation and curse the day polio virus entered the shore of this country. That is what every one of us should do even now that we have three cases.

Why do we talk so much about corruption in Nigeria? Corruption is still with us as a cankerworm; attacking and destroying our sense of values. Why on earth don’t we cease to make debate on electricity and power a national issue? It is simply because we grope under the burden of the failure of power and electricity in our homes and offices every day. These are topical discussions on daily basis because of the devastating effects on our socio-economic life.

Poliomyelitis or polio, in the same vein has destructive tendency on our present and has the capacity to also ruin our future if we do not take calculated steps to curtail its evil work by stopping it NOW. I think we all know that the greatest asset any country possesses lies in the ability of her young people. But polio robs us of our ability. Food for thought!

In 2013, so much noise was made in this direction and I was so delighted. The media blew the trumpet so loudly that even the deaf heard it and the blind saw the signals everywhere. It was a massive campaign. The conglomeration of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with Dangote Foundation aroused global interest and sparked off conflagrations that would have incinerated the last polio virus here in Nigeria. But unfortunately the fire died out because it was not fuelled with consistent publicity and relevant campaign strategies. The resultant effect is that wild polio virus is still with us till today.

Because polio is still with us in its rage against our children, we need to continue our fight and be more violent against its existence in our society now than ever. I am very sure that if we deplore all the weapons in our arsenal, it will not be long; we will sing the victor’s song. And when that time comes we will then re-strategize on how to maintain a polio-free state. We will beef up our campaigns against resurgence of polio cases after declaration of a polio-free status. Meanwhile, our primary responsibility now is exiting the endemic status.

We have recorded two cases as at the time of writing this article. This threatens our target of 2015. We can only be declared free in 2015 if and only if we do not have any cases in 12 months or so. Now, I am afraid that if we do not raise the bar of our campaign to an unprecedented level, next year, 2015, the federal government target for exiting the endemic club may be another mirage.

The question now is – how do we raise the bar? I may have to bring our memory back to 2013 as I draw my answer from the statement of Mr. Babatunde R. Fashola SAN, the governor of Lagos when Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote paid him a courtesy visit in his Lagos House office, Alausa Ikeja on November 12, 2013. In his address, the governor said, “…that is one thing that I wish to work with and with Dangote Foundation to look at how many survivors that are here and let them lead the campaign as a physical demonstration of what can and what could have been, in addition, of course to doing all of the things we really need to do”.

This excerpt from Governor Fashola cannot be discountenanced. In my own estimation, this is the next level of aggressive campaign that we have not explored. This is the new ground that we have to break if we must be free in 2015 and afterwards maintain that level of freedom.

Placing polio survivors to lead the campaign does not mean leadership abdicating its role. He said, “…in addition, of course to doing all of the things we really need to do. This is the most critical stage in this crusade and the way we handle it will determine the eventual outcome. If we do it right, never again shall we lose the strength of our young ones and our dear country to the cruel grip of polio”.